muso wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 8:09pm:


we know that radioactive Iodine is linked with thyroid cancer, cesium 137 with brain tumours, strontium90 with bone cance and leukemia, etc etc etc

The NY Academy of Science study paper is basically a summary of over 5000 Russian papers that relate to the Chernobyl disaster.

Its these alpha emitter (such as Plutonium) and internal emitters that do the damage (with infection lag time periods ranging from 2 to 60 years)

The insane thing about Plutonium and other highly carcinogenic alpha emitters is that they can do damage in one person - kill that person and when they are buried or even cremated, the Plutonium is re-released into the environment for others to be effected.

I can see a hydrogen explosion developing in the fukushima plant. Especially if the fuel rods have melted though the primary containment vessel and accumulated on the concrete base below.

The TV series, "Life After People" used the Chernobyl exclusion zone as an example of how quickly nature reasserts itself. Very interesting. Maybe the same thing will happen in Fukushima?

Belgarion wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 11:34pm:


I don't know if they will have an exclusion zone around Fukushima for any prolonged period.  Time will tell. The most recent monitoring results show a downwards trend.

The interesting point is that no alpha particles have been detected in any of the environmental samples outside the plant.

http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiological-monitoring-and-consequences-of-the-f...

Belgarion wrote on Apr 1^st, 2011 at 11:34pm:


...but after 985,000 human deaths and counting

By the way, you do realise that the radiation levels over most of the US are of the order of 10 times greater than the latest figures from just outside the exclusion zone?  They quote an average dose rate of around 2.4uSv/hr compared to 0.1- 0.3uSv/hr around Fukushima.




You can get the latest monitoring data here:

http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiological-monitoring-and-consequences-of-the-f...

muso wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 7:34am:



What is the data from the 1930's - in the US and elsewhere - before humanity began to wantonly detonate over 2,000 nuke test bombs across the globe?

I spent quite a bit of time looking through Elena Filatova's web-site last night (but I only got through a small part of it)...

It was a simultaneously fascinating, disturbing and cathartic experience - viewing her photographs and reading through her captions and comments...

Here are some particularly-interesting comments and an accompanying map: -

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter47.html

Quote:




What this map shows, is that some of the most severe contamination exists is in patchy pockets rather than concentric from Chernobyl's ground zero - as a result of the random luck and misfortune of ill-winds (and, presumably, landforms)...

Equitist wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 8:06am:


One day, I will visit that area. In some ways it's hauntingly beautiful. They are just starting to open it up to tourism thia year.  There are still some hot-spots, but radiation levels are normal in most areas.

Elena tends to take pictures of dead wolves and things like that.  In a natural landscape with no humans around, you will find dead animals lying around.

There are a lot of conflicting reports about the so-called dead zone. The carp in the streams are probably the most seriously affected. There is plenty of evidence of genetic disruption, but several generations on, there is no evidence of morphological changes.  Some of the trees in the so-called red forest show some mutation - their branches divide slightly differently from normal, but there is no evidence of mutations in the fauna.

The people who have been passing through the exclusion zone up to now have been 18 to 30 year olds on motorbikes, probably in search of adventure.